Fresh beets about to be prepared.

This new year, I’ve found a new love.   Beets. 

I know I sound fickle.  Last year, I puffy hearted Brussels Sprouts and  before that it was broccoli and before that … Well, never mind.  Back to beets.   It started with this salad recipe.   Oh.  My.  Gosh.  I’ve found that I love fresh beets!  I’ll shout it from the mountain tops!   This is another one of the foods that I never, ever liked, before.   And now I like love it.  I love it’s dark, rich, red/purplish color.  I love its unique taste — sort of like a sweet carrot, but earthy?  Does that make sense?  How would you describe the taste of fresh beets?  Tell me.   I love that beets are good for you, filled with vitamins and low in calories.  What more could you ask?

Roasted beets

I watched the preparation of this Beets, Orange and Almond-Crusted Goat Cheese Salad on the food segment of our local news show.  The host explained the preparation fairly easily, and I thought to myself, "I can do that".  Although I initially balked at the idea of beets in a salad, it looked delicious by the time the chef host finished preparing it.  

Getting ready make Almond-crusted goat cheese

I enjoyed preparing the beets.  It was SO very easy.   I had fun making the almond-crusted goat cheese, which was much easier to prepare than it sounded and it tasted really good!

After putting together the rest of the ingredients, viola! –  I had my Beets, Orange and Almond-Crusted Goat Cheese Salad. 

I liked the dressing, which was made from fresh orange juice, olive oil, ground cumin and jalapeno pepper.   Sweet with a little bit of a kick to it to bring together all the other flavors of the cheese, almonds, orange pieces, beets and lettuce.  I’ve been making this salad ever since and preparing beets  in other recipes.  Beets, my new love, I love ya! 

Broccoli, Brussels Sprouts, et. al., don’t worry, I still loves ya, but right now, I’m on a honeymoon with my lovely beets

Paz

P.S.  By the way, does anyone have a simple way of preparing the beets greens? 

Beets, Orange and Almond-Crusted Goat Cheese Salad

as seen on NY1 Cooking at Home/Dan Eaton

Ingredients:
Beets
1/2 cup of almonds
8-ounce log goat cheese
1/2 an orange
Extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbs minced, deseeded jalapeno pepper
1/2 tsp ground cumin
Lettuce

Procedure:
Roast the beets in a 400 degree oven in a pan with a tight layer of aluminum foil over the top and about 1/3 cup water in the pan. You’ll easily be able to insert a knife into the center of the beets when they’re done.

Roast the beets whole and unpeeled, or cut larger beets in half so that they’re all the same size. This should take about 1 hour to roast.

When the beets are cool enough to handle, run them under cold water to remove the skins and then use a knife to cut them into thin bite size pieces, adding them to a mixing bowl as you go.

I’m using whole almonds that I bought already roasted and, for 8-ounces of goat cheese, add 1/3 to 1/2 cup to a food processor and grind the nuts into a medium coarse grind.

You could toast some sliced almonds on the stovetop and then crush those up a little bit instead.

Then place them onto a plate and gently but firmly roll the 8-ounce log of goat cheese into that.

Next, make the dressing by combining the juice of 1/2 an orange with an equal amount of extra virgin olive oil. Add about 1 tbs of finely minced, deseeded jalapeno pepper and 1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground cumin and whisk it up.

Assemble the salads on individual plates with a little lettuce, topped with sliced oranges, sliced beets and some sliced goat cheese.

Spoon some vinaigrette over the top and finish with more ground almonds if you like.